For fall, designers gave boyish bods the heave-ho and embraced shapely silhouettes. Here's how to wear sexy clothes without looking vulgar.

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A curious — or should we say curvaceous? — thing happened during the fall collections. What started as the fashion industry's familiar X-ray silhouettes on designers' runways morphed into nearly X-rated curves, as some major labels traded in stick-thin fashion models for faces more familiar to Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues and Victoria's Secret catalogs. By the time Marc Jacobs showed his Louis Vuitton collection on the last day, we had entered full-on catwalk cleavage craziness. His runway presentation opened and closed with two buxom supermodel mommies — Laetitia Casta and Elle Macpherson, respectively — spilling out of their corsets, and in between them he plumped and propped bosom after bosom.

I bumped into Lily Donaldson backstage after the show (her one and only runway appearance, by the way), and she was rather impressed with her own lifting and separating: "I didn't think I had much by way of a chest," she said with a smile. "But they shoved whatever I've got up as far as it'd go!" Macpherson, who's 46, was equally stunned about her return to the catwalk. "Marc's collection took my breath away," she told me, and I wasn't sure if she meant its stunning beauty or if her corseted and bound finale outfit had literally robbed her of the ability to breathe. But perhaps Karolina Kurkova put this new Vuitton woman best: "She isn't afraid to show her goodies!"

Jacobs, who said Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot were his big influences, was not alone in his appreciation of a fuller female silhouette. Giles Deacon highlighted the bust at his show, as did Stuart Vevers at Loewe and Peter Copping for Nina Ricci. But it was none other than the queen of intellectual chic, Miuccia Prada, who really kicked the curves into high gear when she cast the likes of Doutzen Kroes, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Miranda Kerr, all of whom have been regulars in Victoria's Secret shows. (It's worth noting, though, that while Jacobs's breasts were heaving, Prada's were more discreetly dominant — swelling under a coat or accented with ruffles.)

James Scully, a show producer and casting director who works with Stella McCartney, Carolina Herrera, and Derek Lam, claims one of Prada's unconventional castings "was a direct result of the Council of Fashion Designers of America's Health Initiative," referring to the panels the CFDA has been organizing to discuss the health and age concerns about models, the most recent of which was two days before the New York shows. "Doutzen spoke about how she was edged out of jobs because of her body, and then — boom! — two weeks later she's on the runway at Prada. It was good to see a healthier aesthetic," Scully continues. "We were getting so used to seeing pale, 15-year-old, personality-less girls with no bodies, no boobs."

To say there has been a renewed interest in body image is an understatement. In addition to the forums from the CFDA, other industry insiders have weighed in on the issue. Take the recent curvy-girl-packed "Size Issue" of V magazine, which was one of the best selling in the magazine's history. Then there's Crystal Renn's high-profile memoir, Hungry, which chronicles her tale as an anorexic model who finally found peace in her curves. And we would be remiss not to mention Lara Stone, fashion's bustiest supermodel, who almost instantly made flat chests look passé when she all but took over the fashion industry last year. (When asked once what other models think of her measurements, she responded, "Usually, their reaction is that they wish they had tits like mine.")

The fact that cleavage is back on the runway, according to many designers, is a result of women realizing that flaunting their best assets isn't a bad thing. "I'm not interested in only 16-year-old virgins," says Deacon, who also used Kurkova and Angela Lindvall in his show. "I want women with life experience, and invariably that means they have sex or at least know how to get it."

But to be clear: Sexy and vulgar are two different things. As we've seen necklines plunge, so have hemlines. Similar to seasons past, when girls would bare legs but cover their tops, keeping the proportion is important. To display the chest, one must cover the lower parts of her body. A girl has to pick top or bottom, Deacon explains. "The key is to be seductive and voluptuous, so we're not looking at hooker hemlines and bustlines. It still has to have a taste level."

Top designers aren't the only fashion niche recognizing a shift toward curves. Victoria's Secret, which has the lock on that silhouette, can back up its claims that the bust is back. Last holiday season it launched the Miraculous bra, which instantly adds two cup sizes, and it became its best-selling bra in 10 years. "We're happy to see the fashion industry embracing what we have always deemed as beautiful: sexy, healthy curves," says Monica Mitro, executive vice president of public relations for Victoria's Secret.

Stylist Annabel Tollman is pleased to see this new silhouette, as she'll have more options for herself and clients — particularly Scarlett Johansson. "I think Scarlett likes to work with me because I understand this proportion and know where to find it and how to achieve it," she says, smiling and pointing down to her milky décolletage. "It's not as easy as you think!"

Katie Grand, a magazine editor and the woman many designers rely on for creative direction, puts it this way: "Not only did we see big tits in the shows, we saw women of different ages, which was a really good message. After all, those women are the customers too." Echoing Grand is Ricci's Copping: "There's no point in denying it. Women have breasts. I think they are here to stay." Or, as Deacon promises us, "The chest is yet to come!"